Moonstone

Moonstone (a.k.a. The Marked)

In the towns where they made friends and among the travelers they helped they were called Moonstone because of their nomadic, yet kind-hearted nature. In others, where distrust of foreigners was high, they were called the Marked. They did not volunteer personal information; they would often not even reveal their gender or true name unless trust was earned. They felt safer in anonymity. The druids knew their name and kept it to themselves also. Selune knew their name, and called to them with it.
They had an interesting relationship with their lightning scar. It was a reminder of tragedy and great pain; it marked them among others even more than their race. It struck fear in some; it struck awe in others, for someone who could survive the pain and injury of a lightning strike must be blessed indeed. Or cursed.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Tall and slender frame with lean muscles from constant travelling. Always looks slightly tensed. Athletic. Broad shoulders but narrow waist contribute to overall androgynous look.

Body Features

They have very warm, coppery skin with a faint green-blue tinge around the eyes and ears. Their hair is black with a slight wave, worn generally in a single braid tucked neatly out of the way.

Facial Features

Their face is diamond shaped; long with a pointed chin and prominent cheekbones. The nose is long, narrow, and somewhat flat, with little depth from bridge of nose to brow ridge. Scant brows are atop deep set eyes with the slight slant and cat eye characteristic of half-elves. One eye is dark brown, the other, milky blue-white. They have an almost permanent squint from the desert sun.

Identifying Characteristics

They have a prominent, shiny silvery-pink lightning scar (lichtenberg figure) twisting down the right side of their body. It starts on the right upper part of the scalp (the entry point), then emerges from under the hairline down the temple, branching across the cheek to just across the nose. The main line continues down the neck, shoulder, and right arm to the exit wound on the right hand, with smaller tendrils reaching all over. It is raised and twisted nearly along its entire length.
Their right eye is similarly damaged; the eye is milky opaque but has full functionality. It is often hidden under some hair when they aren't wearing their hood up.

Apparel & Accessories

Their typical outfit is always practical. Made to account for the desert heat and sun, but still useful in other areas like the forests and mountains. They have: a (once) white linen shirt with light armor. leather, waterproof shoes, and light brown linen pants. brown cloak for cooler or wet weather, but generally used a linen head covering which had the dual purpose of shielding from the sun's rays and hiding their scar. Thye had heavier travel clothes for cooler areas in their pack.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Aldamir was born to Aralee, a human, and Elethaid Silverleaf, a wood elf.
Aralee of Sandeskar was part of a wandering group of merchants. She was born in a city but raised on the road; by the time she was 10 she could no longer remember how it was to live in a permanent home. Their usual route began on the coast in the southern part of the Mon Empire, wound its way across the Hurum Desert, then through a mountain pass to Bendol in the Garden of Faire.
Elethaid Silverleaf, a wood elf, spent his days in solitude exploring the forests he and his people called home. As a youth (in his early 70s and when he was not yet Elethaid) he became involved with the hunters who provided for his village. As he travelled with the more worldly members of his kin, he soon would become enamored with the richness of life he found in the settlements of short-lived humans. Over the next few decades, he became a skilled hunter of his own right and a great craftsman of leather and hide armor that he would sell to both his kin and to the "outsiders" he encountered. Despite his friendliness with the travelers and settlements along the trade way, he still did not leave the forest.
A century later, Elethaid encountered Aralee's merchant caravan on the trade way in the being attacked by an owlbear. He assisted in their defense and ultimately slayed the creature. Because they had injured members of their party, he offered to escort them to the boundaries of the forest for their safety.
It was during this time that he met Aralee, a tall, dark skinned young woman who was curious about his elven background. As they journeyed, she and Elethaid conversed often. He told her of the good and kind things found in the forest, to maybe calm some fears after the attack. She told him of the bright, hot sands of the desert and the huge, open sky. They were enamoured with each other. When they reached the boundaries of the forest, Elethaid, though his obligation was fulfilled, took his first steps into the world outside the forest he called home.
Months passed, and Elethaid continued travelling with the caravan, though he often declined to enter the large cities on their routes and often returned to his forest home when they stayed for long. More months passed, until Aralee had a child, born under the full moon on the plains of the Hurum Desert. They named their child Aldamir Silverleaf, a child of two worlds.
Elethaid and Aralee knew that their child, a half-elf, would always be an outsider. Aldamir matured too quickly for the elven kin of Elethaid, and would be looked down upon; and their foreign appearance meant they would not be trusted by human settlements. So they raised Aldamir on the road, like Aralee was, and did their best to show them both of their cultures. Aldamir heard the tales of Aralee's youth and was taken to the crowded cities on their route; other times Aldamir padded through the dark trees after their father as he taught them to find animal tracks and food they could gather. And so it was that Aldamir reached the age of twelve, tall like their mother and strong of limb like their father. After many years travelling up and down the trade way, Aralee's kin knew well how to time their journey to avoid dangerous and difficult weather. They kept away from the mountain passes in the winter and spent the weeks near the summer solstice in the forest under the trees. When traveling south as the days began to shorten, they knew to listen when the heavy sky told them to take to the high roads and shun the soft, dry riverbeds.
Visitors to the desert from other climes often forget that just because it rarely rains, it does not mean that it never rains. And when the locals warn them to stay indoors, or on high ground, they are often unaware that just because it rarely rains, it means that when it does rain, the sky seems to drop all the water from its arms at once, as if it could no longer hold back the weight of it all after months of dry heat. And when the storms pass just a few hours later, the locals say, "You are lucky. This was not a hundred year storm."
There is always a hundred year storm. Aldamir would not, could not forget that, no matter how hard they tried.
Sometimes, curious travelling companions (desperate to make small talk) will ask Moonstone, the Marked, where the twisting scar came from. "Lightning," they would answer, "of the natural kind." If pressed further, they would give no further answer, claiming memory loss from the incident itself. This was only half true.
Aldamir truthfully (and thankfully) did not remember the moment that lightning struck and left searing burns across their body. They did, however, remember the tension in the air as the clouds settled heavily upon the shoulders of the land. The animals were getting restless as the group tried to reach the top of a nearby ridge. Aldamir could feel the hairs standing up on the back of their neck as they walked quickly, sometimes climbing, as fast as they could, but trying to stay within sight of their mother leading one of the wagons. Suddenly, the sky itself seemed to crack open before the water fell in drops so heavy it almost hurt. Aldamir turned to climb back down but was scooped up by their father. "Stay up here!" Elethaid said urgently, setting Aldamir down onto a higher ledge before leaping back down. "I'm going to help your mother!" The roar of the water kept growing louder and from the ledge Aldamir saw the torrent racing down the hillside, climbed onto a stone to shout a warning but it kept getting drowned out by the noise and they were going to get swept away and still nobody could hear and—and— and* *Aldamir awoke lying on wet, hard stone; deafened, in pain, and only barely able to see under the moonlight. There was a hawk, its head tilted, standing on a nearby rock. Aldamir knew no more.

Education

They were healed of their extensive injuries and taken in by the local druids who frequented the desert. The hawk was known by the members of the Circle of the Moon, who called to Selune to help heal this injured child they found; through their magic, Aldamir eventually recovered with full functionality. The only physical sign of the trauma they sustained was the long, silvery-pink scar twisting down from their face to the fingertips of their right hand and the milky white right eye. Moonstone already had a head start when it came to living, navigating, and finding food/water in the wilderness due to the nomadic lifestyle and Elethaid's lessons. The druids taught some different techniques for doing so, how to speak and write druidic, but more importantly, magic. They also taught about Selune and how to best worship/appease/pray to her.

Employment

In their later teenage years, Aldamir spent more and more time away from the druids that raised them until they were living a solitary life. They would read and leave messages for the other druids and meet with them occasionally to exchange news and pray. They began to venture back up into the forest, where they hadn't been since childhood, and became friendly some of Elethaid's old friends. This became a place they could trade.
Eventually Aldamir was brave enough to visit human settlements; the head covering was convenient because it hid the scar and pointed ears from distrustful humans. They were awkward in conversation and were chased out of more than one place due to their appearance, often in smaller towns. But at inns in bigger places they often found people needing a guide across the desert. They took odd jobs as well running messages or other small deliveries and helping on "adventures." They later earned the name Moonstone among innkeepers and others who sometimes saw them sitting quietly in a corner for one evening and disappearing the next.

Mental Trauma

Moonstone watched their parents probably die in a natural disaster and was permanently, painfully scarred by a lightning strike as a child. There's definitely trauma.

Quiet half-elf druid who spends their days traveling and occasionally serving as a guide. The air of mystery surrounding them is entirely unintentional. They'd be the last to say so, though.

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Alignment

neutral good

Age

20

Gender

androgyne

Eyes

brown and white

Hair

black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

warm copper

Height

6'0"

Weight

150 lb